It's, as always, a great review. To the point, good pictures and objective comments...

The thing I DON'T understand about this card is that I seen it listed at NCIX and TigerD and both retailers are posting specs of 96 SP's for this card ,bandwidth is advertised at 72GB/sec (instead of 64GB/sec for vanilla 8800GTS640).

I'm interested in learning more about this card( for my cousin's rig), as the 8800GT is backordered big time, and I like this idea of having provision for higher res ( more memorybandwidth, bigger frame buffer) if I switch to a bigger screen down the road.

I just don't want to be stuck with a card that is supposed to have 112SPs and shows as a 96SPs.

Do you think it's just a typo/mis-understanding from the e-tailer's side of the house?

Edit...eVga's site tells that the 640-P2-N829-A1EVGA | Multimedia Solutions
has 96 SPs also... is is the same sku as the one you've been reviewing?

To tell you the truth it is because NO ONE has updated their sites concerning this card. It launched very, VERY quietly so it would not take any steam out of the 8800GT launch. The original documentation that came with the card says that it has 96+ Stream Processors / Shader Units and it is indeed more than 96...there are 112. I have verified that the 3 different models I have listed in the review (from EVGA, BFG and XFX) all have 112 SPs.

Ok, so are all of those new 112SP ones have the A2 core? I think that from your review of this card, the unit reviewed ahd the A2 core. That could mean that A3 cores are laser-cut (crippled to 96SPs) and cannot be soft-modded to 112SP.

I realize that your're on it, like you already mentionned. It would be sweet to "Bios-flash" my 8800GTS 640 to SSC specs!!!!

Great review you really cleared up the confusion surrounding the "new" GTS. As mentioned above this card has a LOT of people wondering about flashing their current GTS. I think we'll probably see more of that than actual sales if it works. Still you are right it bridges the gap fairly nicely from GT - GTX in price and performance. But I am still totally psyched about my 8800GT SC that is at this very moment on a truck in the lower mainland on its way to ME ME ME. *OMG fainting...*

Here is the long and the short of it: this A2 G80 core has the additional shader processors unlocked so to speak. That being said I am reasonably sure (more like 99% sure) that the SPs on the other G80 cards are laser cut rather than being locked through the BIOS. We are currently working on seeing if a BIOS flash actually works on a regular 8800GTS 640MB card but I am almost positive that it will not. :(